The following contains spoilers for Futurama season 12 episode 6, “Attack of the Clothes,” now streaming on HuluFuturama Almost blew up the Earth several times over the course of the series, often only barely sparing the planet a terrible fate. Set in the 31st century, Futurama has always been a source of surprisingly dark comedy. This was extended to entire alien races being wiped out as part of a throwaway gag, or the ruling class of various societies (like the once dangerous Omincronions) casually killing off minor characters. One of the show’s most consistent threats is to the entire world, with Earth being targeted by cosmic entities and reality-breaking events multiple times.
Niha, The show also teased the planet’s destruction as the result of humanity’s own mistakesAllowing the futuristic sci-fi comedy to play with some timely messages about the dangers of global warming. Futurama Season 12 is the last to do so, with “Attack of the Clothes” revealing the last way humanity could have gotten itself wiped out. Here’s every time Futurama blew up the earth and how they healed the world – or left it destroyed.
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10
The garbage asteroid that almost wiped out Earth
Season 1 “A Big Pile of Garbage”
The occasionally apocalyptic scope of Futurama was established all the way back in season 1Which also established how quickly the universe could find a workaround. In Season 1’s “A Big Piece of Garbage,” it is revealed that an excess amount of trash and debris that was rocketed from Earth centuries ago has been orbiting the cosmos. Having grown to a massive size, the titular large piece of garbage is now large enough to cause an extinction-level event if it hits Earth.
Functionally a parody of the Michael Bay disaster film Armageddon“A Big Piece of Garbage” tweaks that plot by Subverting the plans to detonate an explosive that can split the ball in two. When the plan fails spectacularly, Frey figures out an alternative. By creating enough waste in the present 31st century, the citizens of the earth were able to rocket up another giant garbage ball. This redirects the initial, saving the world from certain doom. Notably, the ending of the episode indicates that the ball will eventually gravitate back to Earth, making the catastrophic collision potentially inevitable.
9
Don’t fry frozen domes earth (and all of reality)
Season 2 “Anthology of Interest I”
The non-canon season 2 episode “Anthology of Interest I” introduced the What-If Machine. A creation of Professor Farnsworth, the device allows the episode to be a three-part episode that explores wild scenarios like Bender being a giant or Leela becoming an assassin. The last one, “The Unfreezing of a Life”, really shook an important piece of undisclosed novelty at the time. In the third story, Early avoided being frozen and continued in the 21st century.
This caused irreparable damage to the universe, as Frey was seemingly destined to go to the future. Future seasons revealed that this was partly because of Fry’s time-hopping adventures, which resulted in him becoming his own grandfather. In a world where he is not frozen, The resulting paradox broke the seams of the timeline. Due to the non-canon nature of the episode, the ending of reality is not reversed. Instead, the story ends with Free refusing to fix the timeline, and all of reality (Earth included) collapsing into an empty void.
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Global warming almost killed the planet
Season 5 “Crimes Of The Hot”
Global warming is a really dangerous concern of the modern world, and it continues to be a major threat in the world of Futurama. Season 5’s “Crimes of the Hot” revealed that Earth has spent centuries stalling global warming instead of directly solving it. When the typical solution of introducing ice to the oceans fails, the world initially thinks Doomed to extreme weather that could wipe out humanity. A workaround was discovered when robots were discovered to be the source of the excess greenhouse gases, leading to the near eradication of all robots.
Considering the sheer importance of robots in the 31st century, This could have further threatened the survival of the earth. However, the robots are able to use their exhaust ports to transport the Earth into a different solar orbit. This allowed the world to cool enough to survive global warming, all while extending the length of a regular year by a week. This wouldn’t be the only time robots nearly wiped out the planet, however.
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7
Bender’s time travel was almost erased from existence
Season 6 “Bender’s Big Score”
Season 6’s “Bender’s Big Score” was one of the biggest storylines in the entire series, eventually pitting the entire Earth and some of their cosmic allies against a group of scammers who would take over the planet. After unlocking time travel, The scammers used a brainwashed bender to travel through time and steal countless priceless artifacts. At first, this seemed to actually fill in the blanks of the show’s canon.
Bender’s rampage in the past was actually one of the cataclysmic events seen in season 1’s “Space Pilot 3000” happening in the background while Early is frozen. The real threat came when Bender and all his time-displaced duplicates decided to mess with the time stream, Caused a paradox that ripped a tear in reality. Initially presented as a world-threatening event, the story is resolved in the next four-part story, “The Beast with a Billion Bucks” in a way that more or less resolves the threat itself.
6
The Adam and Eve episode seemingly destroyed Earth
Season 7 “In-a-gada-da-leela”
One of the first Futurama Episodes following FuturamaThe second revival, season 7 “In-a-gada-da-leela” focused on a mysterious entity traveling through the galaxy and destroying planets. Eventually discovered to be a fusion of two modern satellites that now “censor injustice” worlds by destroying them, the entity. When Leela and Zapp Brannigan are sent to solve the issue, they initially seem to fail and are forced to watch as the earth is destroyed.
In reality, however, the planet survived, with Zap only lying about the world’s destruction in an attempt to fool Leela into believing they were the last two humans alive. Finally, the entity – known as V-GINY – Allows the planet to survive if it can watch Leela and Zapp consummate their relationship. Despite Zapp and Fry’s reluctance, Lela went through with it and saved the world.
5
Fry, Bender and Farnsworth travel forward to the end of the earth
Season 7 “The Late Philip J Fry”
The best example of Futurama Destroying the Earth and not actively reversing the event came during the 7th season “The Late Philip J. Frey.” While testing Professor Farnsworth’s new time-travel machine (which can only move forward in time), Farnsworth accidentally sends himself, free, and bender through time. They eventually end up on a lifeless version of Earth At the end of existence. After making peace with having lost all their loved ones, the three use the time machine to witness the eventual destruction of Earth when the Sun supernovas.
however, This reveals that the universe of Futurama is cyclicalWith the big crunch at the end of all things set off another big bang, resulting in a nearly identical universe to the one before. Although they melt upon landing and have to repeat the destruction of all existence, the trio are eventually able to regain their proper place in the timeline (by accidentally killing their counterparts in this new world) and continue their lives. This is notably the only time in Futurama That the real destruction of the earth is not restricted or rendered non-canon.
4
The Martian predicted end of days
Season 9 “A Farewell to Arms”
Season 9 “A Farewell to Arms” largely centered on an unfounded prophecy that a massive solar flare would destroy the Earth. With an electromagnetic storm disrupting all of Earth’s technology, it is initially presented as an inescapable scenario for Earth. Only some people are able to escape the world, Leaving others like Frey and Bender to perish along with the planet.
However, the end of the episode reveals the prophecy of the Martians is actually about the end of Mars, not Earth. They’d left the prophecy on Earth as a warning to humanity to avoid neighboring planets, inadvertently almost getting a large swath of humanity killed. The earth is finally able to recoverAnd even Mars is eventually restored to its previous state (as seen in episodes like season 12’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
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The Nibblonian ship that almost doomed the world
Season 10 “Game of Tones”
The world of Futurama Was repeatedly saved by Nibbler and the rest of the Niblonians, a race of ancient beings dedicated to preserving life in the galaxy. Episodes like season 3’s “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid” saw them help save Earth from the giant brains. Nibbler even made sure Frey was frozen in the first place, preventing the world from collapsing into the kind of paradox that condemned it in “Anthology of Interest I.” however, Season 10’s “Game of Tones” almost results in the Niblonians accidentally wiping the ground himself.
When a spaceship traveling the cosmos emits a powerful sound, It can cause worlds to collapse on themselves. The same fate almost baffles Earth, with Fry’s memories of his last night in the past helping to reveal that the noise is actually a Niblonian key fob trying to locate a lost ship. Although the world is damaged in the process, the Planet Express crew helps find the vehicle, thus saving the world from the accidental doom that befell other worlds before them.
2
The weird ending in Futurama blew up the earth
Season 11 “The Prince and the Product”
Season 11 “The Prince and the Product” is a weird episode of FuturamaWith a non-canon framing means often interrupted by parodies of various toys. The independent approach to FuturamaThe established lore and rules in the episode work when it focuses on the random gags of the cutaways, but the central plot about Leela seemingly falling for an alien prince is strange and eventually explained away with a magical “scientific spell” that forces her to love him
The episode ends with the Planet Express ship transforming into a duplicate of Bender. It then quickly collides with the earthKnocking it out of rotation and decimating the west coast of the United States. It’s a really weird episode of the latest revival of Futuramaincluding the unexpected destruction of the world. It’s also an episode officially classified as non-canon by the creatives behind the series, explaining how the Earth could be blown up with no apparent consequences.
1
Farnsworth smells the planet with clothes
Season 12 “Attack of the Clothes”
Season 12 “Attack of the Clothes” is The latest episode of Futurama To seemingly doom the earth. The episode is largely focused on Professor Farnsworth establishing a surprising career as a fashion designer. Part of the appeal of his work is that the clothes last only a day, requiring new creations tomorrow. When the clothes are used and “out of style”, they are discarded in a wormhole that dumps them to a waste world.
After the Planet Express crew travels through the wormhole and warns Professor Farnsworth about what he’s doing, The professor discovers the wormhole has actually sent the clothes a bit into the futureAnd that the planet that was smothered by his creations was actually Earth. The episode ends with the apocalypse seemingly beginning to happen. While the resolution will likely be revealed in the next episode of FuturamaThis latest brush with destruction is a reminder of how dangerous the 31st century sci-fi setting can really be.